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XXXVII.

CHAP. his intention of saying he had not laid before his Majesty the inconveniences which would attend the King's service and the good of his people in the question contained meant that he did not, in February 1721, advise the King of any inconveniences that might attend his Majesty and the kingdom by his going out of it at that time, he being in that state of health which necessarily required his going out of the kingdom for the preservation of his life, so as not to admit of a return of his Majesty's further pleasure.' But adds, that in August 1722, after he had by the use of the Bath waters, recovered some use of his limbs, he returned to London, and acquainted the Secretary of State with his being able to return to Ireland, and was informed it was the King's pleasure he should continue longer in England, till his Majesty should give further directions, or words to that effect, and his Majesty ordered him a further leave of absence, bearing date October 4, 1722.'

Examination of

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Mr. Cooper, Deputy Registrar of the Court of Chancery, Registrar. was examined and stated that, during the absence of the Lord Chancellor, 189 causes were ready for hearing in the Court of Chancery; of these 102 were determined by the Commissioners for hearing causes during his Lordship's absence, of which only four were, upon petition, reheard by the Chancellor, and in all these he affirmed the decrees.

That 87 of these 189 were depending at the time of the Lord Chancellor's return, part of which might have been determined in Hilary and Easter Terms. That five causes determined by the Chancellor before his absence had been set down for rehearing, but not reheard until his return. Testimony On the evidence of one of the Six Clerks, it appeared that, by the end of Trinity Term 1723, all the causes ready for hearing were actually heard and determined by the Lord Chancellor, and that, on his Lordship inquiring in open court, if there was any cause or motion remaining to be heard,' the answer was 'None,' and that Mr. Gurney had been a Six Clerk for twenty-three years, and during all this time, he never remembered greater despatch of business

in favour of Lord Chancellor.

The Chan

cellor's

despatch of

business.

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lone's

than while Lord Midleton was Lord Chancellor.' Richard CHAP. XXXVII. Malone, Esq., one of the most eminent Chancery barristers of Ireland, on oath deposed, that he had not observed Mr. Mamore rehearings in the Court since the Lord Chancellor's evidence. return than at other times, but rather less, nor did he think more business went to the Chancery of the Exchequer during the Lord Chancellor's absence than used to be at other times, although the attendance of lawyers was greater than usual, because the High Court of Chancery did not sit so often as formerly.'

The Lords' Committee censured the Chancellor by this resolution

resolu

'Resolved-That it is the opinion of this Committee that, The Lords' through the absence of the Lord High Chancellor, there tion has been a failure of justice in this kingdom, by the great delay in the High Court of Chancery and in the Exchequer Chamber. The Lord High Treasurer, and Vice-Treasurer, and Master of the Rolls being also absent.'

Whilst these proceedings were pending the Chancellor resolved not to gratify his enemies by resigning the Great Seal. He was fortified by the consciousness that while Lord Chancellor he discharged the onerous duties of his station in a manner to merit praise instead of censure. He committed to writing his determination, which I am enabled to place before my readers: —

the Great

1. My resolution is never to make it my own act to lay Respecting down, but rather to be laid aside, without any cause given Seal. by me, as I have been ill-used without any.

2. Never to decline serving the King while I can be serviceable to him.

3. Not to make any application to be continued, or to express any willingness to my being so, unless I may do it with honour, which cannot be, in my opinion, till I have reason to think I shall not be so neglected, slighted, and so ill-represented and thanked for my services as I apprehend I have been for some time.

Copied for this work by the Hon. William Brodrick, M.P., eldest son of the Right Hon. and Rev. Lord Midleton.

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XXXVII.

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CHAP. 4. I think and know I have served well, and hope whenever it shall be thought for his Majesty's service to appoint me a successor, that I shall have the happiness of being dismissed like a faithful servant, with some mark of his favour, and not as if I had disgraced him, for my late treatment looks wholly that way.

The de

cision of the Lords

to resign.

'If I may have reason to believe that I shall find this treatment, I am desirous to continue in that post where his Majesty has been pleased to place me, and will act in it, as I have always done, with zeal for his service and perfect fidelity to his interests; otherwise I neither desire to continue, nor make it my request to be rewarded.

5. If it might consist with my Lord Lieutenant's concurrence, I wish to have leave to kiss the King's hand in England though I were to return ever so soon after.'

But the resolution adopted by the Lords caused a change in his Lordship's determination. He was not satisfied causes him with the state of affairs in Ireland at this period, and resigned the office which he so ably held for eleven yearsSucceeded from 1714 till 1725. He was succeeded by Lord Chancellor WEST, whose tenure was of brief duration. Lord Midleton's abilities as an Equity Judge rank very high, and it is much to be regretted that no reports have preserved decisions which were well worthy of remaining as safe beacons for the guidance of the profession he adorned.

by Lord.
Chancellor
West.
His cha-

racter as

a Judge.

Among the tributes paid to Lord Midleton for the part he took against Wood's Patent, was one from George Faulkner, Dean Swift's publisher, when preparing the 'Drapier Letters' for publication in a volume, he sought permission to dedicate them to Lord Midleton by the following letter:—

To the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Midleton.

'MY LORD,-You have so signally interested yourself in asserting the dying liberty of your country, that to offer the following papers to any other, would be the greatest injustice I could possibly be guilty of to your Lordship's character, which must attend the fame of the greatest

sovereigns that have adorned the British throne through CHAP. the memoirs of faturity.

'But among all the great actions of your Lordship's life, your late conduct in the affair of the copper half-pence justly demands the nation's thanks; and in my humble opinion, the Drapier himself would have been entirely silent in that affair had he not had so glorious an example as your Lordship to follow, whose every action testifies to the world that your greatest glory is in being what the the ancient Romans so ardently desired a-pater patriæ.' 'I humbly beg pardon for my presumption, and remain with all respect, my Lord,

'Your Lordship's most humble

' and most obedient servant,

GEORGE FAULKNER.'

The following endorsement on this letter, which is among the papers of Lord Midleton, kindly copied for me by the Hon. William Brodrick, M.P., shows the fate of the application :

This paper was left at my house in my absence, on September 20, and brought to me by one of my servants while I was at dinner, in the presence of my son, Mr. Wall, and Mr. Stabury. I ordered the servant to tell the man who left it I could not by any means consent to the dedication of the Drapier to me, and if done, would complain of the printer.'

XXXVII.

Declines

the compliment.

cellor a

Public

That the Ex-Chancellor preserved the regard of the Ex-ChanGovernment appears by various employments conferred on Commishim. In June 1725, he was named a Commissioner of sioner of public accounts, in conjunction with Sir Ralph Gore, Sir Accounts. John St. Leger, and others. He also appears to have attended in the Irish House of Lords during the sessions of Parliament. Lord Midleton had a fine country-seat called Ballyannan, very agreeably situated near Cork Harbour. In his park is a small river that takes a subterraneous course, near which is a large romantic cave.1

1 Smith's Hist. County of Cork, vol. i. p. 147.

СНАР. XXXVII.

Three times

married.

His son, St. John Brodrick.

Alan, second Lord

He was thrice married: first to Catharine, second daughter of Redmond Barry, Esq., of Rathcormack. This lady was of a very ancient and most respectable family in the county of Cork, now worthily represented by James Barry, Esq., of Ballyclough, in that county.

By his marriage with Miss Barry, Lord Midleton had issue a daughter who died young, and a son, St. John Brodrick, who, in the reign of Queen Anne, represented the borough of Midleton, and afterwards the city of Cork, in the Irish House of Commons. He was also returned for the county of Cork, and married Anne, sister of Trevor Viscount Hillsborough. He died without issue male.

Some time after the death of his first wife, Lord Midleton, then Mr. Brodrick, married again. His second choice fell on Alice, daughter of Sir Peter Courthorpe, of the Little Island, in the county of Cork, to whom he was united in 1695.

By this lady he had two sons and a daughter. The elder of the sons named Courthorpe, died in infancy; the younger, Alan, survived him, and became the second Lord Midleton, and the daughter, named after her mother, Alice, Midleton. married the Rev. John Castlemain, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Alice, the second wife, died in 1703, and is also interred in St. Michan's Church, Dublin. After being thirteen years a widower, his Lordship became again a votary of Hymen. He selected Anne, daughter of Sir John Trevor, Master of the Rolls in England, and widow of Michael Hill, Esq., of Hillsborough. There was no issue of this marriage. The Ex-Chancellor and first Lord Midleton died in 1728, at his country-seat, Ballyannan, county Cork.

Death in 1728.

The present Viscount Midleton is in holy orders, and was Dean of Exeter. He first married Lady Elizabeth Anne Brudenell, and this lady dying without issue, he married, secondly, his cousin, the Hon. Anne Brodrick, and has four sons and a daughter. The legal attainments of this eminent Lord Chancellor of Ireland are fairly represented by two of Lord Midleton's sons, the Hon. William and the Hon.

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